(A file consisting of excerpts
from the PRINCIPIA
DISCORDIA, a non-copyright
book which serves as a "bible" for
Discordians. It may
answer some questions about Discordianism
-- but, then again, it may not.)

POEE
is one manifestation of
the DISCORDIAN SOCIETY
about which
you will learn more and
understand less

We
are a tribe
of philosophers, theologians,
magicians, scientists,
artists, clowns,
and similar maniacs
who are intrigued
with
ERIS
GODDESS OF CONFUSION
and with
Her Doings

"There are trivial
truths and there are great truths. The
opposite of a trivial truth
is plainly false. The opposite of
a great truth is also true"
--Neils Bohr.

ON PRAYER: Mal-2 was
once asked by one of his Disciples if he
often prayed to Eris.
He replied with these words: No, we
Erisians seldom pray, it
is much too dangerous. Charles Fort
has listed
many factual instances of ignorant
people
confronted with, say, a
drought, and then praying fervently --
and then getting the entire
village wiped out in a torrential
flood.

THE LAW OF FIVES:
The Law of Fives is one of the oldest Erisian Mysterees.
It was first
revealed to Good Lord Omar and is one of the
great contributions
to come from the Hidden Temple of the
Happy Jesus.
POEE subscribes to the Law of Fives of Omar's sect. And
POEE also recognizes the
holy 23 (2+3=5) that is incorporated
by Episkopos
Dr. Mordecai Malignatius, KNS,
into his
Discordian sect,
the Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria.
The Law of Fives
states simply that: ALL THINGS HAPPEN IN
FIVES, OR
ARE DIVISIBLE BY OR MULTIPLES OF FIVE, OR ARE
SOMEHOW DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY
APPROPRIATE TO FIVE.

The Law of Fives is never wrong.

In the Erisian Archives
is an old memo from Omar to Mal-2:
"I find the Law of
Fives to be more and more manifest the
harder I look."

POEE (Pronounced "POEE") is an acronym for the PARATHEO-
ANAMETAMYSTIKHOOD
OF ERIS ESOTERIC. The first part can be
taken to mean "equivalent
deity, reversing beyond-mystique".
We are not really
esoteric, it's just that nobody pays much
attention to us.
MY HIGH REVERENCE MALACLYPSE THE YOUNGER, AB, DD, KSC, is
the High Priest of POEE,
and POEE is grounded his episkopotic
revelations of The Goddess.
The POEE HEAD TEMPLE is the Joshua Norton Cabal of The
Discordian Society,
which is located in Mal-2's pineal gland
and can be found by temporally
and spatially locating the rest
of Mal-2.
POEE has no treasury, no bylaws, no articles, no guides
save Mal-2's pineal gland,
and has only one scruple -- which
Mal-2 keeps on his key chain.
POEE has not registered, incorporated, or
otherwise
chartered with the State,
and so the State does not recognize
POEE or POEE Ordinations,
which is only fair, because POEE
does not recognize the State.

ORDINATION AS A POEE PRIEST:

There are no particular qualifications for Ordination
because if you
want to be a POEE Priest then you must
undoubtedly qualify.
Who could possibly know better than you
whether or not you should
be Ordained?

NO TWO EQUALS ARE THE SAME

THE DISCORDIAN SOCIETY

The Discordian Society has no definition.
I sometimes think of it as a disorganization of
Eris
Freaks.
It has been called a guerilla mind
theatre.
Episkopos Randomfactor,
Director of Purges of Our People's
Underworld Movement
sect in Larchmont prefers "The World's
Greatest Association
of What-ever-it-is-that-we-are." Lady
Mal thinks of
it as a RENAISSANCE THINK TANK. Fang the
Unwashed, WKC,
won't say. You can think of it any way you
like.
An EPISKOPOS OF THE DISCORDIAN SOCIETY is one who prefers
total autonomy,
and creates his own Discordian sect as The
Goddess directs him.
He speaks for himself and for those that
say they like what he says.
The LEGION OF DYNAMIC DISCORD: A Discordian
Society
Legionnaire is one who prefers
not to create his own sect.

If you want in on the Discordian Society
then declare yourself what you wish
do what you like
and tell us about it
or
if you prefer
don't.

There
are no rules anywhere.
The Goddess Prevails.

The Hell Law says that Hell is reserved exclusively
for them that believe in
it. Further, the lowest Rung in Hell
is reserved
for them that believe in it on the supposition
that they'll go there if
they don't.
-- HBT; The Gospel According to Fred, 3:1

CONVENTIONAL CHAOS

GREYFACE

In the year 1166 B.C.,
a malcontented hunchbrain by the name
of Greyface,
got it into his head that the universe was as
humorless as he,
and he began to teach that play was sinful
because it contradicted
the ways of Serious Order. "Look at
all that order about you,"
he said. And from that, he deluded
honest men to believe that
reality was a straightjacket affair
and not the happy romance
as men had known it.

It is not presently
understood why men were so gullible ÿat
that particular time, for
absolutely no one thought to observe
all the DISORDER around
them and conclude just the opposite.
But anyway,
Greyface and his followers took the game of
playing at life more seriously
than they took life itself and
were known even to
destroy other living beings whose ways of
life differed from their
own.

The unfortunate result
of this is that mankind has since been
suffering from
a psychological and spiritual imbalance.
Imbalance causes frustration,
and frustration causes fear.
And fear makes a bad trip.
Man has been on a bad trip for a
long time now.

It is called THE CURSE OF
GREYFACE.

HERE FOLLOWS SOME PSYCHO-METAPHYSICS.
If you are not hot for
philosophy, best just skip
it.

The Aneristic Principle is that of APPARENT ORDER; the
Erisitic Principle
is that of APPARENT DISORDER. Both order
and disorder
are man made CONCEPTS and are
artificial
divisions of PURE CHAOS,
which is a level deeper than is the
level of distinction making.
With our concept making apparatus called "mind" we look
at reality through
the ideas-about-reality which our cultures
give us.
The ideas-about-reality are mistakenly labeled
"reality" and
unenlightened people are forever perplexed by
the fact that other
people, especially other cultures, see
"reality" differently.
It is only the ideas-about-reality
which differ. Real
(capital-T True) reality is a level deeper
than is the level of concept.
We look through the world through windows on which have
been drawn grids
(concepts). Different philosophies use
different grids.
A culture is a group of people with rather
similar grids. Through
a window we view chaos, and relate it
to the points on our
grid, and thereby understand it. The
ORDER is in the GRID.
That is the Aneristic Principle.
Western philosophy is traditionally concerned
with
contrasting one grid with
another grid, and amending grids in
hopes of finding
a perfect one that will account for all
reality and will,
hence, (say unenlightened westerners) be
True.
This is illusory; it is what we Erisians call the
ANERISTIC ILLUSION.
Some grids can be more useful than
others, some more
beautiful than others, some more pleasant
than others, etc., but none
can be more True than any other.
DISORDER is simply unrelated information viewed through
some particular grid.
But, like "relation", no-relation is a
concept. Male,
like female, is an idea about sex. To say
that male-ness is "absence
of female-ness", or vice versa, is
a matter of
definition and metaphysically arbitrary. The
artificial concept of no-relation
is the ERISTIC PRINCIPLE.
The belief that "order is true" and disorder is false or
somehow wrong, is
the Aneristic Illusion. To say the same of
disorder, is the ERISTIC
ILLUSION.
The point is that (little-t) truth is
a matter of
definition relative
to the grid one is using at the moment,
and that ÿ(capital-T)
Truth, metaphysical reality, is
irrelevant to grids
entirely. Pick a grid, and through it
some chaos appears ordered
and some appears disordered. Pick
another grid,
and the same chaos will appear differently
ordered and disordered.
Reality is the ultimate Rorschach.

THE LAST WORD

The foregoing document
was revealed to Mal-2 by the Goddess
Herself through many
consultations with Her within his Pineal
Gland. It is guaranteed
to be the Word of Goddess. However,
it is only fair to
state that Goddess doesn't always say the
same thing to each
listener, and that other Episkoposes are
sometimes told quite
different things in their Revelations,
which are also
the Word of Goddess. Consequently, if you
prefer a Discordian
Sect other than POEE, then none of these
Truths are binding,
and it is a rotten shame that you have
read all the way down to
the very last word.

PROCLAMATION!

EMPEROR NORTON

Joshua Norton, or as he
preferred to be called, Norton I,
proclaimed himself Emperor
of the United States and
Protector of Mexico in 1859.

Although a pauper, he was
fed free in San Francisco's
best restaurants.

Although a madman, he had all
his state proclamations
published in
San Francisco newspapers.

While rational reformers
elsewhere failed to crack the
national bank monopoly
with alternate currency
plans, Norton I had his own
private currency accepted
throughout San Francisco.

When the Vigilantes decided to
have a pogrom against the
Chinese, and sane men would
have tried to stop them, Norton I
did nothing but stand in the
street, head bowed, praying.
The Vigilantes dispersed.